Purbaya to Give Rp 100 Billion in Funding to UI
Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa said he will provide Rp 100 billion in assistance to the University of Indonesia (UI) through the Education Fund Management Agency (LPDP). He made the announcement while delivering a scientific oration at UI’s Bachelor’s and Vocational Program Graduation Ceremony for the Odd Semester of Academic Year 2025/2026 at Balairung, UI Depok Campus, on Saturday, February 14, 2026.
Purbaya said his ties with UI run deep, particularly during his tenure as Chairman of the Deposit Insurance Corporation (LPS). He had allocated a budget to support a program at the Faculty of Engineering (FT) in collaboration with the Faculty of Engineering at UC Berkeley. “So we sent three UI students to Berkeley every year, and they received high recognition at Berkeley. This is already the second or third cohort going to Berkeley, but I’m no longer at LPS,” Purbaya said.
When he moved from LPS to become Finance Minister, Purbaya assumed he would have less money at his disposal, but the opposite turned out to be true. “It turns out I have even more money. You could say I oversee LPDP, which now has Rp 150 trillion in endowment funds to be used for education programs,” he said.
Purbaya noted that UI’s ranking among world universities has risen to below 200, meaning its position is climbing higher. However, President Prabowo Subianto has asked for it to be pushed into the top 100, giving him a reason to once again assist the university now led by Heri Hermansyah. Purbaya said his office plans to provide UI with Rp 100 billion this year. “So the student executive board shouldn’t protest anymore,” he said with a laugh.
Purbaya then asked the graduates what they wanted to become for the Republic of Indonesia, noting that being a student is easy. Besides studying, he said, whenever there is inequality, students simply take to the streets, make noise, protest, and that’s that. “Now you can no longer do that, because soon you will be the ones determining the direction of the economy and the nation going forward, and you will be the ones protested against by the student executive boards beneath you. So if you’re smart, teach them—going forward, protest less and just study—so you won’t be protested against,” Purbaya said.
On the occasion, Purbaya also joked that he was initially afraid to come and deliver the scientific oration at UI because on his very first day as finance minister, he was met with a BEM UI protest calling for his resignation in front of the House of Representatives building. “What they didn’t know is that I was also once a lecturer at UI. So if you challenge me to a debate, you’d surely lose—I was a doctoral lecturer in Business Economics, and you were still students back then,” Purbaya quipped.
In response to the funding pledge, UI Rector Heri Hermansyah said that in 2022, he was Dean of UI’s Faculty of Engineering and had collaborated with LPS under Purbaya’s leadership. “That was with the Faculty of Engineering alone. Now this is at the university level, multi-faculty, for various activities—internationalization and international cooperation involving all faculties in order to pursue and improve our world ranking,” he said.